Lands of Katagma

Baldwin Rumwald's Notes [11] - Not so Motherly Basket

14

MAY/18

We arrived in Westpine in the late afternoon. We returned the cart we had hired to the carpenter and paid him his dues. We inquired after the tavern keeper and his wife and learned they had locked up and left in the past few days. He said he knew nothing about the reason, but his body language gave away that he was lying.

We headed over to the tavern and found it was indeed locked. Amafey, Melech and I headed around the back and found another door. It was also locked but Melech used one of his spells to open it. We search the tavern thoroughly but find nothing unexpected, though it was obvious they had packed up and left in a hurry.

We decided the best option was to head to the Fey Friend’s “house” even though it would probably be dark before we got there. This turned out to be a bad idea. As we neared the Fey Friend’s house we were beset upon by a swarm of bats. I swung my sword around trying to hit them but to no avail. The hired bandits took the brunt of the biting. The bats with their hunger sated flew off. Beiro, in some kind of crazy, ran off after them. He did return a short while later, proclaiming victory. I wasn’t so sure.

Some of the bandits were quite injured so it took a while longer to get to the house. On the way we saw a new pair of scarecrows. We gave them a wide birth, wanting to avoid further trouble.

I unlocked the front door and we entered. After quick scan around the house I was satisfied nothing was untoward. We ate dinner and then tapped one of the casks of ale. It wasn’t too bad a drink.

It was getting late so I went upstairs to sleep, as did the others. The bandits took the master bedroom between them, but I did managed to nab the bed in the second room.

In the morning I cleared out the larder of all the rotting food. Not a nice job but the smell was beginning to permeate to the rest of the house. As we ate breakfast and discussed our next move we heard a knock at the front door. I run up to the second floor to get a look through the murder holes. It was Mother Basket!

As I arrived back down stairs I found that Melech had let her in and was talking to her in the dinning room. I entered and stood in the corner as Amafey went in the kitchen to make tea. A rather tense conversation was taking place between Mother Basket and Melech. She was blatantly lying. I was tempted to call her out but Melech convinced me otherwise using his magic mind talking.

Amafey returned with tea and conversation turned to the favor owed to her by Amafey and Melech. She wants a horn of a unicorn! What kind of “Mother” is she? I had a very strong urge to slay her where she stood. But what if the others turned on me?

Beiro entered the room and mother basket took this as a cue to abruptly depart. Amafey tried to question her about the scarecrows but she swatted it aside with an obvious lie. Damn her insolence. Melech reworded the question to remove any possible ambiguity but she reaffirmed her statement with a curt response before swiftly departing.

We returned to the new scarecrows we noticed the night before. On closer inspection I noticed they wore the clothes of the missing tavern keeper and his wife. A sorrowful end.

Without any other plan and the vile power of Mother Basket obvious we had no choice but to seek out the unicorn horn. We headed south along the river bank. A short while later we heard the sound of pan pipes. Amafey whipped out her flute and began to play along. We found the source of the music in a clearing. A number of satyrs were joyfully playing and dancing. They greeted us and began handing around wine and ale. Never missing an opportunity for a drink I gladly accepted. An unexpected turn of events! We tried to ask questions of them but quickly gave up. They refused to talk of “dark” things.

Oh well, best get drunk and contemplate slaying a unicorn another time.